Falling Walls Engage winner 2019

Falling Walls Engage awards the best science engagement project 2019

Earlier today the Falling Walls Foundation and Robert Bosch Stiftung awarded the prize for Science Engagement of the Year 2019.

• The award recognises projects that build bridges between science and society in an original and innovative way.
• The winner for 2019 is the DreamSpace Academy project, from Sri Lanka, which helps children and adolescents to develop technical solutions for ecological challenges.

Berlin, 8 November 2019. Scientists around the world are working to find creative ways to explain their work to the public and to inspire people to learn about different science topics. They offer interactive workshops for students and teachers, write short stories, or go to hospitals to take patients on a voyage across the cosmos. Today, for the second consecutive year, an outstanding science education project was named Science Engagement of the Year at the Falling Walls Conference. This year's prize went to the DreamSpace Academy project from Sri Lanka, which encourages children and adolescents to engage with the difficult environmental conditions in their own local area and to develop technical solutions in workshops – starting with their own idea, then constructing and testing prototypes, and then implementing the product. "We were impressed by how this project breaks down the walls between science and society by giving young people the opportunity to decide which problems science should tackle and then helping them to come up with solutions themselves," says Melanie Smallman, lecturer at University College London and chair of the Falling Walls Engage jury, in her congratulations to the winner.

The Falling Walls Foundation and the Robert Bosch Stiftung launched the new international platform for science education last year for a number of reasons: "Falling Walls Engage aims to generate awareness of successful science outreach projects, to foster exchange between their initiators, and to encourage other researchers to start their own projects," says Katrin Rehak-Nitsche, Head of Science and Research at the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

This year, 81 initiatives from 44 countries applied for the award. Today, 20 finalists presented their projects in Berlin in a pitch competition. The interdisciplinary jury of top researchers, museum directors and journalists selected the winning project based on both its innovative and original approach to science education as well as its ability to be implemented with few resources. The winner will have the opportunity to present their project tomorrow on the grand stage of the Falling Walls Conference to an audience of 750 international executives, decision-makers and international media representatives.

More information on Falling Walls Engage and the prize-winning project is available at www.falling-walls.com/engage.

About the Falling Walls Foundation 
The Falling Walls Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Berlin. The foundation creates international and interdisciplinary platforms and networks through its annual Falling Walls Conference, which asks each year on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: Which walls will fall next? At the conference, 20 leading researchers from around the world present their latest breakthroughs in the natural sciences, humanities, business and technology to an audience of around 700 decision-makers and innovators in politics, research, industry and civil society. The Falling Walls Foundation also organises Berlin Science Week, which bring scientists from institutions all over the world to Berlin from 1 to 10 November. A further initiative is the Young Entrepreneurs in Science programme, which trains doctoral researchers to translate their research into a potential business idea. The Falling Walls Foundation is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Berlin Senate, as well as by numerous national and international research institutions, foundations and companies. www.falling-walls.com

About the Robert Bosch Stiftung 
The Robert Bosch Stiftung is one of Europe’s largest foundations associated with a private company. In its charitable work, it addresses social issues at an early stage and develops exemplary solutions. For this purpose, it plans and implements its own projects. Additionally, it supports third-party initiatives that have similar goals. The Robert Bosch Stiftung is active in the areas of health, science, society, education and international relations. The Robert Bosch Stiftung is committed to upholding the values and example of its founder Robert Bosch and continuing his philanthropic work. With more than 50 years’ experience, the Foundation has extensive knowledge, the qualifications for developing solutions, and a comprehensive network of partners, experts and practitioners. The Robert Bosch Stiftung is the owner of the Robert Bosch Hospital and the associated research institutes in Stuttgart, the Institute for the History of Medicine (IGM) and the Dr. Margarete Fischer Bosch Institute for Clinical Pharmacology (IKB), and the International Alumni Center (iac) in Berlin. The Robert Bosch Stiftung is a founding partner of the UWC Robert Bosch College in Freiburg and the German School Academy in Berlin. The Foundation holds a 92-percent stake in Robert Bosch GmbH and finances its operations from the dividends it receives from this holding. Since it was established in 1964, the Robert Bosch Stiftung has invested around €1.8 billion in charitable work.
www.bosch-stiftung.de

Press contact 
Julia Knolle
Falling Walls Foundation gGmbH
Kochstraße 6/7
10969 Berlin

Tel: +49 30 60 988 39 75
Fax: +49 30 60 988 39 79
press@falling-walls.com